It's that time of year again: RiskMetrics Group has announced the kick-off of its 2010 policy formulation process with the opening of its proxy policy voting survey.

The survey is part of RMG's annual process to gather input from its institutional investor clients and industry constituents on the governance issues that are likely to dominate the upcoming proxy season.

According to the RMG press release, this year's policy formulation process will include more outreach to investment industry groups and to the global corporate issuer community.

The survey is open through July 31 and will be followed by an open comment period in October after RiskMetrics publishes its draft policies. Feedback received during the comment period will be made available via RiskMetrics' Policy Gateway.